


Act 11: Stuck in the Hospital

by writerx75



Series: Stuck [12]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Dirty Talk, Explicit Sexual Content, Fluff, Head Injury, Language, M/M, Oral Sex, Yaoi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-08
Updated: 2015-07-08
Packaged: 2018-04-08 06:49:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4294782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writerx75/pseuds/writerx75
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Renji finds out secondhand that the substitute is in the hospital, so he rushes to the living world to investigate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Act 11: Stuck in the Hospital

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, everyone! A bit of plot this time, and some seriousness, but it all ends up OK, I promise.
> 
> As always, thanks to my editor-in-chief, [gwoman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwoman/pseuds/gwoman) for her work on this piece!
> 
> Note: This series was written before/during the Winter War arc, and I set this story at some vague point in the future when (I assumed) things have gone back (more or less) to normal. Canon continues to be violated, and will be for the remainder of these stories. : )
> 
> Disclaimers: I don't own these characters and don't make any money for these writings; I'm just creating these stories to entertain myself and (hopefully) you.
> 
> The people in this story are fictional, and so you might see them doing things that aren't strictly safe from a sexual standpoint. You are a real person, so please be safe when you play! If you want more information about how that all works, please look [here](http://www.scarleteen.com/article/sexuality/safe_sound_sexy_a_safer_sex_how_to) or here...or there are plenty of other sites with good info on the web, too, so check them out and be safe.
> 
> Oh, yes, one more thing. All of the people depicted (or referred to) in sexual situations in my stories are intended and considered to be by the author of the legal age of consent in any jurisdiction, regardless of what age these characters may be in the material they are derived from. OK?

_I should have tied him to the bed when he tried to leave Soul Society,_ Renji thought. _OK, so the bed's on the floor. I should have put some bolts in and tied him to the wall._

He looked around agitatedly, trying to find the next landmark. It was twilight now and he was surrounded by people walking home from a long day of work or going out to dinner with a date or spouse. Most of them didn't see him standing on the sidewalk and sort of unconsciously walked around him, but since this was Karakura, there were more people than average whom the redhead knew could sense him. Those people usually eyed his shihakusho with surprise or nervousness before they hurried past.

_Fuck, where is it?_ Renji looked to all other corners of the intersection, straining his eyes to find anything that looked like a supermarket. On one corner there was just an office building, so that obviously wasn't it, but the other two had shops, Renji just couldn't find much sign of what it was they sold. He was gripping the little piece of paper with directions in Yuzu's hasty writing so hard that it was wrinkling badly, and he was about to let out a string of curses when he felt someone at his elbow.

“Sir, are you searching for something?” a woman quietly asked him. By her appearance, she seemed to be a business woman on her way home from work, and as Renji looked at her, he saw her eyes slide to the side as she watched the crowd moving around the two of them, her expression willing them to keep moving.

Renji felt a surge of gratefulness in his chest at the woman's kindness. He wanted to thank her, but for some reason he couldn't think of one appropriate thing to say so he just croaked out, “Yeah, I'm looking for a hospital.” Since he continued to find words difficult at that moment, he just held the paper out a little and pointed at the characters. The woman began to nod.

“Oh, yes, certainly. That's not too far from here. Do you mind if I ask why you're going there?” she said, looking at Renji full in the face for the first time. Her eyes were very kind, but there was a pain in them that almost took the redhead's breath away.

What should he say, Renji wondered? Everything that came to mind sounded completely idiotic to him. My heart, my life, my love, the closest person to me – “My friend is there,” Renji said, and mentally cursed himself. The word 'friend' had never sounded so inadequate to him before, but somehow the woman picked up on what he'd actually meant to say, and her eyes grew large with surprise.

“Please forgive me,” she said, dropping her gaze to the ground. “I didn't mean to be disrespectful. I know you...people try to do some good things, but I also know that you come for the dead. I lost my husband not long ago, so if you were going there for that purpose, I didn't want to help you. But for your friend...”

Her tone had softened and she trailed off for a moment, then as Renji watched, she gestured with her head across the street in the direction they happened to be facing. “Just keep following this road; it's maybe a kilometer or so ahead on the right. It will be difficult to miss; it's a huge white building and it has some nice grounds around it. I very much hope that your friend is fine,” she finished, and with a final gaze up at Renji and a small smile, the woman slipped into the crowd and continued her walk home.

The redhead looked after her for a moment, his voice stuck in his throat, wanting to express his gratitude and _still_ not able to think of a thing to say. After a few seconds, however, he flash-stepped across the street and stopped on the corner in front of a sign directing pedestrians to the supermarket, which was behind the shop with the display windows that faced the direction he'd come from. He cursed at it before he decided to go up to the rooftops to travel the rest of the way to the hospital, now that he knew where it was.

_Less than two fucking weeks back and he's in the hospital,_ Renji thought. _Yeah, I should have tied him to the wall. He likes being tied up, right?_ Renji shook his head. _Yeah, right. Ten seconds flat and I'd have a hole in my wall and a pissed off Ichigo. Attacking me, more than likely._

Even though he didn't want to think about it, the redhead's mind flew back to earlier in the day. It hadn't started out as one of the blackest days in his life; it had actually seemed like a fairly ordinary one up until late that afternoon when a shinigami that he hadn't recognized had shown up at his office. Kira had been dealing with it; he was somehow amazingly good at handling unexpected interruptions, weeding out people who really didn't need to talk to them, and turning them away without any of them ending up angry.

Renji had been ignoring it and continuing to work on the unending stream of paperwork until he’d heard the man say in an annoyed tone, “Well, all right, if Abarai-taicho doesn't want to hear about the substitute being in the hospital-”

“What?” Renji hadn't realized he'd shouted, but suddenly everyone and everything in the office and outside of it seemed to have been shocked into silence.

He also hadn't realized that he'd stood, but as he had tried to rein himself in, Renji gestured for the man to come over to his desk. The young shinigami’s self-confidence had seemed to waver for the first time, and he’d looked a great deal less arrogant once he had been standing in front of Renji’s desk. Kira had turned to look at Renji the moment he’d spoken, and then looked back at the young shinigami, an icy shade in his pale blue eyes.

“What were you saying?” Renji had asked once the man was still. He was speaking at a conversational level now, but the authority and tension in his voice spoke volumes louder than if he’d been screaming. The young shinigami had actually winced before he spoke again.

“Well, I had been called to report back to Soul Society, but I heard as I traveled to the gate that Kurosaki was in the hospital.” He had seemed almost fidgety then, and after a shaky breath, he’d continued. “So I came here first to let you know.”

“His condition?” Renji's voice had cracked out like a whip, long before he'd consciously thought about saying anything.

The young shinigami had looked back at him with wide eyes. “I don't know, Abarai-taicho.”

Renji had glared down at the man, trying to breathe deeply and not crush his own teeth as his jaws clenched together. “So,” he’d said in a deceptively low tone, one that had made Kira’s eyes flick immediately to his own, “did you get called back here for some sort of emergency?”

“No,” the young man had blurted out nervously, “it was just that my assignment in the living world had ended.”

Forcing himself to take in another deep breath, Renji had let it out slowly before he’d answered. “So you found out that a comrade had been injured and had no indication of how badly, but instead of investigating that you came back to Soul Society because your assignment had ended? Is that what occurred?”

He had stared at the young shinigami, who hadn't been able to meet his eye and had been shifting from foot to foot under the scrutiny. “Well, sir, that's-”

“When does your relief come on duty?” Renji had questioned further.

“Tomorrow morning,” the man had said, looking up at the redhead again, the color draining from his face.

“So Karakura town, one of the areas in the living world with the highest concentration of people with large amounts of spirit energy, is currently undefended. Am I understanding this correctly?” Renji had known he was practically skewering the young man with his gaze, but he hadn't been able to stop. The shinigami in front of him had been squirming where he stood.

“But, sir-”

“Your name and division, please,” Renji had demanded, his voice low and dangerous.

“My name is Nakamura Takashi, Abarai-taicho, and I'm with the 13th,” the young man had said in a barely audible voice.

“Nakamura, please report back to your division immediately for further orders,” Renji had said, his voice now steely and commanding.

“Sir, please let me-”

“Get out of my office!” Renji’d cut him off, his voice raised but not to the level of a shout. He had been able to feel a trickle of sweat sliding down his temple and had nearly bit his tongue trying to keep his jaws clenched together and not yell after the young shinigami that he’d better never see him again.

When Renji had raised his gaze a moment later, he’d happened to be turned in the direction of Kira's desk. The first thing that had caught his eye was the calendar that his vice-captain insisted on keeping in the office in order to make sure he didn't start feeling too self-important, Kira always said. It had been open to September, and Renji had felt his stomach flip over as he’d seen his lover. The picture was a head shot, and it showed Ichigo with his head thrown back against the corner of the elevator, lips slightly apart, eyes closed with an expression seemingly somewhere between pleasure and pain. The redhead's stomach had ground once more, as if it had wanted to chew a hole in him. Ichigo had been calling to him at that moment, and Renji had almost been able to hear his name in the air again as he’d kept looking, had almost been able to taste the younger man coming once more. It just made the reality so much worse, he had thought as he’d mentally come back to his quiet office to find Kira watching him.

Nothing had come out of his mouth when Renji’d opened it to speak, and instead Kira had spoken.

“Just go. Don't worry about it; I'll get it cleared somehow.” The blonde man had been confident and steady, and he had seemed like such a mountain of strength at that moment that it had made the huge knot that seemed to have taken over Renji's chest loosen just a little.

“Izuru...thanks,” the redhead had said. He’d wanted to say so much more, but for some reason both his jaw and his voice had seemed to be almost paralyzed.

The blonde had smiled just a bit, meeting Renji's eyes calmly. “What sort of a friend would I be otherwise? Go ahead. I'll take care of it for you, and I'll watch over everything while you're gone.”

All he'd been able to manage was to nod, and then he was flash-stepping for the nearest gate to the living world. He'd stopped by the Kurosaki house first, thinking that Ichigo might be at their clinic, but the only thing he’d found was the note on the door that Yuzu had left, bless her.

The strangest thing about the experience so far had been _not_ being able to sense Ichigo's spirit energy. Renji was usually able to feel it the moment he entered the living world in Karakura. Ichigo had gotten somewhat better over the years at drawing it in, but the redhead knew that he had become so attuned to Ichigo that he could sense even a bit of his lover's spirit energy from far away. So far, there had been nothing, no sign of it, which caused the stone that seemed to have settled on top of him to gain weight the closer he got to the hospital. But then, Renji's breath caught as he felt it, a thin thread of spirit energy compared to what he was used to, but the relief that washed over him at sensing it nearly caused him to lose his footing and fall to the street below.

Suddenly, he was at the hospital and he was standing outside the correct window on the fire escape. To his surprise, the window slid silently open as he tried it and he climbed inside. Renji shut it just as quietly and then turned around.

His heart thumped once and then seemed to contract in his chest as he looked at Ichigo in the bed. Seeing him tucked into those pristine white sheets, and the contrast his brilliant hair made against the pillow and the bandages wrapped around his head made Renji feel his lover looked smaller, and he was suddenly at Ichigo's side. There was a chair that was sitting right beside the bed, and the redhead immediately thought of Yuzu again and smiled, then felt weird about smiling and stopped.

He looked over at Ichigo again and swallowed, his throat suddenly feeling congested and raw. What should he do? What _could_ he do? Renji cursed quietly as he remembered that there were no other shinigami in Karakura town right now, so if an alert came in, he'd have to take care of it. He checked his communicator quickly, seeing nothing, and willed it to remain quiet for the rest of the night.

“Fuck, Ichigo,” Renji said nearly under his breath. He wasn't sure what he was cursing, exactly, maybe just the feeling of being completely helpless in this situation. But then, as he pocketed the communicator and turned back to the bed, Renji noticed Ichigo's eyelids starting to flutter. His heart felt as if it had turned over or maybe that it had restarted itself as he watched.

“Renji, what are you doing here?” Ichigo asked once he'd blinked a few times but then he stopped, frowning at the IV needle attached to the arm he'd moved when he tried to sit up a little. Renji watched as Ichigo looked back up at him, still frowning in confusion. “What happened?”

The redhead barked out a strangely nervous laugh, his body suddenly shaky with the relief of having Ichigo _awake_ and speaking to him. “You're going to have to tell me, Ichigo. I just got here.”

The younger man continued looking confused for a moment and then seemed annoyed after he tried to scratch the back of his head and seemed to find it painful to touch.

“Fuck,” he mumbled, then gazed at the ceiling, obviously thinking. “Well,” Ichigo said after a moment, “the last thing I remember clearly was seeing this stray dog that was injured and about to get run over again. I couldn't just let that happen, so I ran to get it. I managed to move it off of the road, but I vaguely remember this sharp pain in the back of my head as a car went by. I'm thinking maybe the driver hit me with their side view mirror as they passed me.”

Renji just stared at Ichigo for a moment. He wasn't sure at first what he was feeling; he expected to feel angry after hearing that story, but he wasn't. The redhead just felt so absurdly happy that it wasn't anything worse that he couldn't speak for a moment, but then he did feel a rush of anger at the idea of being left alone, again. _I must look like I'm insane,_ Renji thought, as crazy bursts of anger, happiness, and relief warred for dominance in his mind and in his expression. After a moment, he shook his head and returned his focus to Ichigo, who was looking at his hands and appeared to be blushing. Renji couldn't stop himself from smiling at the sight, but struggled to look more neutral as he reached for his lover's chin and turned Ichigo to face him.

“I'm sorry,” the younger man said, looking stricken. “You came all the way out here just for...this. You must be mad.”

“An apology? Now I can tell you hit your head,” Renji said, knowing that his expression was softening again as he looked at Ichigo. “Look, I'm only mad about one thing. There's only one dog you have any responsibility to. Just don't make me a stray again.”

_Well,_ that _may have been the lamest thing I've ever said,_ Renji thought after he closed his mouth. He was about to speak again, to try to add something so that he could hopefully sound a little less ridiculous, but he stopped as he saw the look on Ichigo's face.

Ichigo's eyes had gotten really wide, and he just looked at Renji for a moment, then he blushed again as he turned away, blinking his eyes too quickly. “Of course not, Renji,” he said, and his voice was rough and low as if...as if he were going to cry, the very thought of which seemed impossible. Then Renji was overwhelmed by the way Ichigo had said his name, low and slow and lingering, as if it was a word that deserved extra time and attention, valued above the others. Suddenly, it seemed as if there wasn't enough air in the room, and Renji was feeling a little dizzy, but then Ichigo was holding out his arms.

“Come here, Renji. Come _here_ ,” he said, trying to pull the redhead into the bed with him.

Ichigo waited to speak again until the both of them were pressed together, the arm with the IV in it carefully draped over the two of them and his face buried in Renji's hair. “Did you think you’d come here and find my spirit wandering around with no memories left? Or maybe that I was gone for good? You didn't think you could get rid of me that easily, did you?” Renji could tell he was trying to lighten the mood, but the words somehow came out so seriously that the redhead could hardly breathe. “I'm not leaving you,” Ichigo finished, the words barely audible, pressed into Renji's neck.

And now Renji felt like _he_ was trying not to cry as he clutched Ichigo to him, trying to let his suddenly thundering heartbeat calm down somehow. But it seemed there was no way that was going to happen because Ichigo went immediately from murmuring against the redhead's neck to kissing his way up to Renji's earlobe and biting it hard enough to make his lover moan. As their lips came together, it was slow and gentle at first, but the redhead could feel the intensity escalating and pulled back a little to try to breathe.

“Fuck, Ichigo,” Renji muttered, trying to keep his thoughts in order, “calm down. Aren't you supposed to be injured? You are in the hospital, you know.”

Ichigo let out a quiet puff of laughter right by the redhead's ear, making him shiver. “I just hit my head. As I think you know, my head is very hard.”

“Yeah, like a fucking rock,” Renji murmured in return, trying to somehow shift in the small bed so that he wasn't pressed up tight against Ichigo, but his lover kept moving too, until they were lying on their sides flush against one another, and Renji could feel that Ichigo's head wasn't the only thing that was hard.

Ichigo laughed as he saw the surprised look on the redhead's face. “I've heard that getting hit on the head makes you horny, but that's not true.”

Renji looked at him in confusion. “Well what the-”

“It's _you_ , you idiot,” Ichigo broke in, preventing Renji from saying more by pressing their lips together. “This is what you do to me whenever you're around,” Ichigo continued when he pulled back slightly, his breath still hot against Renji's mouth. “Plus, I've got to show you that I'm not going anywhere; you know, make you believe it.”

The redhead was about to reply, but instead he stared over Ichigo's head for a moment and then sat up as the door began to open. He threw Ichigo a glance to make sure the other man had noticed that they were about to have a visitor, then quietly got out of bed to stand by it, waiting to see who came in. Relaxing a little once he realized it was someone who worked at the hospital, Renji leaned against the wall to watch and see what would happen next.

“Oh, you're awake,” the nurse said as she turned on a small lamp by Ichigo's bedside. “I'm glad. We all figured you'd be up soon, though.”

She moved over to Ichigo and took out a small flashlight. “I'm going to have a look at your eyes,” she said as she started her examination. “We want to make sure you don't have a concussion.”

Nodding as she finished looking and noting something in a chart, she turned back to Ichigo. “So, how do you feel?”

“All right, just a bit of a headache,” he replied, fingering the back of his head.

“That's normal, unfortunately, with an injury like yours. We've done some scans and everything looks OK, but we're going to keep you here overnight and someone's going to come in like this every hour to check on you to make sure you're all right. We should be able to discharge you in the morning, assuming everything goes well,” she said, nodding.

“OK, thanks,” Ichigo said. Renji could see Ichigo's eyes slide in his direction for a moment before he focused on the nurse again. “I have a question, though. Will this head injury interfere with having sex?”

She looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, “No, it shouldn't cause you a problem, but I'd advise against trying anything _too_ strenuous for at least the next few days.”

Ichigo nodded and thanked her as she turned the light back off and headed back out the door. Renji hadn't noticed that it had gone from twilight to full dark outside, but he didn't need to be able to see in the dark in order to know that his lover had a smirk on his face now.

“So how did you end up becoming this devious, anyway?” he asked as he settled back in bed with Ichigo.

He could feel the quiet laugh as Ichigo's lips moved to his shoulder. “Too much hanging out with you, I think,” the smaller man said quietly as he pulled back a moment later and then moved to suck on the redhead's collarbone.

“Oh, like you were so... _mmmh_...innocent before we got together,” Renji replied a little unsteadily as his hands ghosted down Ichigo's back. He growled at the little gasp Ichigo gave moments later as he pushed the hospital gown out of the way and grabbed his lover's ass, pulling the two of them together.

Ichigo's lips faltered then and Renji felt the smaller man moan into his shoulder as he rocked their groins together again. Then their mouths were joined and the redhead couldn't quite figure if it was him or Ichigo who'd started it, but he lost track of that as he felt his lover grinding against him and pushing the top of his shihakusho open. They were both breathless as they separated some seconds later, and Renji felt Ichigo's forehead resting against his as they panted for breath.

“So, how do you want to do this, Ichi,” he asked, and he could hear that deep, rough tone in his own voice, but somehow couldn't manage to be ashamed of even _thinking_ about having sex with Ichigo in his hospital bed, probably because he could see the smirk that had appeared on the smaller man's face even before he'd finished speaking.

“I want you in my mouth,” Ichigo said quietly, against his ear.

Now Renji had to hold back a gasp because of what Ichigo had said _and_ how he'd said it. The redhead could feel his cock twitch in response and ground against Ichigo once more with a growl before he leaned back to quickly throw off the rest of his clothes.

“Sure,” he said, low and dangerously, as he slid back into bed in the opposite direction, “as long as you let me suck you off, too.”

Ichigo gave a low groan as Renji pushed the hospital gown up his chest and he let out a little surprised yelp as the redhead took most of his length in one dip of the head.

“Fuck, Renji,” Ichigo mumbled unsteadily and shivered as he felt Renji chuckle in response.

Renji swallowed around the head of Ichigo’s cock and growled as he heard the younger man’s gasping grunt in response. _Maybe Ichigo was right,_ the redhead found himself thinking, because now that he could feel the heat of his lover against him and hear those delicious noises the younger man was making, the sense of relief he’d felt earlier was back in his chest. It seemed to be washing over the redhead in warm waves as he breathed in Ichigo’s familiar scent and pulled back just a bit to run his tongue over the head of his lover’s cock and taste the well-known tang of the smaller man’s pre-come.

But a flood of something else hit him a moment later as he felt the wet heat of Ichigo’s mouth on the head of his own cock, and Renji gasped through his nose and shuddered as lips continued sliding down his shaft. The redhead slowed his own pace for a second, closing his eyes as the feeling overwhelmed him.

There wasn't anything that the two of them had tried together that Renji didn't like, even though he had his favorites, but somehow the way Ichigo gave head made him glad that he was usually lying down. Something about the way the younger man would wrap his lips around the redhead's cock and slowly suck as much in as he could, the hot look in his eyes, and the muffled groans he'd make never failed to send shudders down Renji's spine and make his legs useless for doing anything like holding him up. Some of it was that Ichigo brought the same intensity and drive for success to oral sex as he did everything else, which made everything he did just that much hotter, but there was something else. Even the first time Ichigo had tried to give him a blow job, it had held Renji – the fact that Ichigo got off on making him come this way. The redhead could see it in the burning gaze Ichigo continued to fix on him, and feel it in the moans that his lover made against his skin. Renji could feel that the sounds Ichigo was making were the same ones he made when he was being fucked good, and he was quivering the way he would when the redhead pushed into him just the way he liked.

Of course, those sounds only intensified when Renji made Ichigo's cock disappear inside his own mouth, licking around the shaft as he pushed the head into his throat and swallowed around it again. Ichigo's whole body jerked then, and the groan he made as he bobbed his head down onto Renji's cock was almost unearthly. As Renji shuddered and tried not to buck forward, he realized that they'd better slow down a little so that things didn't get too crazy, considering that Ichigo had just been injured.

So, he pulled all the way back, still holding onto Ichigo's cock, and pumped it a few times as he licked around the head, alternating long, flat strokes of his tongue with probing the slit and under the flared ridge with the tip of his tongue. Then he pulled back again and blew a stream of air along the wet skin before he took Ichigo all the way in his mouth again.

The effect on his lover was electric; Ichigo stopped completely for a moment before letting out a long moan and a series of uncontrollable shudders. Ichigo started to mimic what Renji had been doing, then, drawing a groan from the redhead.

“Fuck, yeah, Ichigo,” Renji breathed as he moved off Ichigo's cock momentarily. “That's it, suck me off just like that. Fuck that feels good.”

The two of them moved together then, teasing and licking as much as they sucked one another off, and Renji could see a few minutes later as Ichigo was starting to lose it. He couldn't even look at the redhead anymore, and the long moans coming from the back of his throat were almost constant. Ichigo was still shuddering as Renji pulled back momentarily so that he could talk.

“Come on, Ichigo, let me go for a minute. I want to hear you when you come,” Renji said with a smirk.

Ichigo opened big, dark eyes to look dazedly at Renji, but did as he was told, groaning quietly as the redhead's lips slid down his cock again moments later.

“Fuck, Renji,” he murmured, panting. “Fuck, the way you... _mhmmm_...you're driving me crazy.”

Renji hummed encouragingly, which just caused Ichigo to shiver and buck his hips. The redhead got lost in Ichigo's responses, feeling increasingly turned on and almost drunk off the feeling of being able to draw little noises and moans and calls of his name out of his lover with just his lips and tongue. Finally, as he pushed the head of Ichigo's cock way back into his throat and swallowed, he felt the smaller man convulse and let out a stifled groan at the same moment he tasted that familiar briny tang as Ichigo came for him. Renji was still lost as he swallowed again and again, listening to his lover's muffled cries, feeling slightly ridiculous at the triumphant surge that ran through him after making Ichigo come, but somehow also swamped with the sensation of having arrived back home.

As Renji moved his head back a little he found Ichigo looking him in the eye, a sated smile on his face and still panting slightly.

“You feeling OK?” Renji asked, trying to look into Ichigo's eyes, but between the dim light in the room and the distance between the two of them he couldn't really even tell what the nurse had been looking for.

Ichigo rolled his eyes in response. “Look, I'm fine, OK? If they were even worried about me, they'd be keeping me a few days, not saying they'd release me in the morning.” As Renji met Ichigo's gaze again, he watched the other man's expression change from irritation to intense interest as the redhead's now aching cock twitched.

“Time to finish what I started,” Ichigo growled, trying to pull Renji closer with the hand he had on the redhead's ass, but Renji was wriggling away.

“Ichigo, maybe you should just rest. Your head-” Renji started, then stopped speaking in surprise as Ichigo glared at him and quickly rolled him on his back.

“Don't you treat me like that,” Ichigo said gruffly. “I just hit my head, I'm not dead, Renji. Besides,” he said as he slowly ran his eyes up the redhead's frame, “I want to wipe _that_ look off your face. I want to see that sexy look you get when you come hard, and I know it's not going to take long until you come for me.”

Renji was surprised enough to just shut up, and then watched with wide eyes as the smaller man slid two fingers into his mouth and began to suck on them. He let out a little groan seconds later as Ichigo's mouth closed back over his cock and he felt a slick finger sliding up one of his thighs. Suddenly, the desire to have his lover inside him nearly overwhelmed Renji, and he couldn't restrain a desperate little noise at the sensation of Ichigo's fingers pushing into him, twisting and seeking.

He gave a rough cry as Ichigo sucked almost all his cock in and started stroking his spot at the same time. The surge of pleasure was nearly blinding and Renji felt his hips rocking mindlessly as his body demanded more of all the sensations. Quickly, too quickly, the redhead felt himself nearing the edge of what he could handle. He wanted to warn Ichigo, wanted to figure out some way to make it last, but it all felt so good that all Renji could force out were some strangled moans before he was coming in Ichigo's mouth.

Some time later Renji opened his eyes, blinking as he saw Ichigo sitting back in the bed with a satisfied smirk on his face. When the smaller man saw the redhead's eyes open, he smirked a little wider and smacked Renji's leg.

“Now get back up here,” he said, sliding to one side so that Renji had room to flip around.

Renji was beside Ichigo in moments, pulling the other man close and wrapping his arms around him.

“Yeah, I like this look on you much better,” Ichigo said, smiling as he curled into the redhead's embrace. “Don't worry so much next time,” he continued, his voice trailing off as he yawned.

_Next time,_ Renji thought as he brought his lips down to the wild orange hair and kissed Ichigo's scalp. _I hope there is no next time,_ he wished while sighing because he knew there almost certainly would be.

When Renji woke a half-hour or so later, he found a message on his communicator from Kira letting him know that he was cleared to stay in the living world for the next couple of days due to the substitute shinigami's injury. Conveniently, this led into the weekend, when he had been planning to be here anyway. His vice-captain also mentioned that he'd be on duty to protect Karakura should the need arise through tomorrow morning and that the new shinigami would contact him upon reporting for duty.

Renji stood by the window for a moment and gazed at the sliver of moon that was visible and at the number of stars that were now out before sitting back down beside Ichigo's bed. The orange haired man was still sleeping and actually looked sort of peaceful at the moment, which made the redhead smile. It was more usual that Ichigo would talk or mumble in his sleep and restlessly roll around until Renji grabbed him and held onto him, and only then would he lie still, pressed as closely to the redhead as he could manage.

“Hey.” Renji heard Ichigo's voice, bringing him back out of a light doze. Somehow, the redhead had fallen asleep in the chair as he watched over his lover and waited for a hollow alert that never came, and he rubbed an eye as he looked over at Ichigo, who was glaring at him.

“I didn't want to wake you up,” Renji replied softly, trying to respect the hush in the hospital even though he knew no one but Ichigo would hear him. “I'm on duty until morning, and I figured it would be too disturbing if a call came in.”

Ichigo rolled his eyes as he lifted the covers up and gestured Renji into the bed. “No more than someone coming in here every hour to shine a light in my eyes. Come over here, dumbass, before you fall out of the chair. After we get out of here this morning we can go home and get some real sleep.”

Renji rolled his eyes as he moved over to the bed, trying to scowl instead of grin and also to ignore the warm feeling in his chest at the idea of spending tomorrow in bed with Ichigo.

“So, how long are you here for?” Ichigo asked a little sleepily, and Renji couldn't help but smirk at the quick hopeful look in the younger man's eyes before he turned his face into the redhead's hair.

“I'll be here through the weekend, so I should be able to keep any cars off of you for that long,” Renji replied, enjoying the annoyed look on Ichigo's face before he briefly explained the situation.

“Cool,” Ichigo mumbled in the way he did when he wasn't far from sleep. “My dad had some damned chore around the house he wanted me to do with him tomorrow, so you can help, too.”

Renji just chuckled very low in his chest, listening to Ichigo's breathing even out. He knew he was still smiling like an idiot when he finally dropped off to sleep some minutes later.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, comments about what you liked and what you thought could be improved would be much appreciated. Thanks for reading!
> 
> -WriterX


End file.
